Quick quiz – would you rather set up your business budget or go to the dentist for a filling without Novocain? If you’re like me, you’ll spend a few minutes in serious debate about this topic. (But you shouldn’t – and besides, you might bite the dentist.) Most entrepreneurs prefer to spend time working in their business than on [...]
In our last installment, we had gotten the money for our business - hooray! And we were working through the legal and accounting issues and changes that might be required in order to actually get and use the capital from investors. Again, a special thanks to the FizzLaw team for connecting us to some great attorneys to answer [...]
Most start-ups spend lots of time seeking out investors to help them move the company forward. Once you’ve grabbed the brass ring, what do you do with it? Companies who come to agreement for funding terms with an investor often have to make a few changes to their structure, governance, and more in order to [...]
“No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” – Helmuth Von Moltke Von Moltke’s quote above is one I’ve used before, and I’ll keep using it because it is the truth. In many startups I’ve helped, the business plan is written, researched, tested and presented as a fait accompli or a done deal – something [...]
One of the toughest moments in your business life will probably be asking someone else to give you money to fund your dream. Usually it’s a pretty large sum, and most people don’t have experience with asking for that kind of money. On the plus side, if you’ve been working your personal roadmap at Wicked Start, [...]
One of the hardest things any entrepreneur will ever do is asking a potential investor for money. Pitching your company is your opportunity to deliver a huge boost, obtaining working capital for marketing, hiring, producing products, and more. Baseball great Nolan Ryan said of pitching, “My job is to give my team a chance to win.” [...]
Once you’ve figured out your financials (see “How Much Money Do I Need To Start My Business” ) then you have another set of calculations to make. The first calculation is, “How much will I personally invest in my business, and how much am I asking for from investors?” Any investor is going to want [...]
This is a key question that entrepreneurs ask all the time: “How much money do I need to start my business?” The answer is: “It Depends.” Let’s look at a few of the things you’ll need to think about in order to answer this question. We cover these things in both step 5.10 as part of [...]